A Bit Weepy

Do you know what that is? That is LaRues backpack and supply list. For school. Which she starts in about six weeks. Three hours a day, five days a week.
I almost can't even take it. I know, I know. She is going to absolutely love it, and she couldn't be more excited, and I'm even sure that once she's going and we're in the routine of it all I'll probably end up loving it. But right now I just feel like we're shooting impossibly fast toward September eighth and I'm kicking and screaming and wanting to yell "don't grow up! You're my baby!" And sometimes I do yell it, okay, well I don't yell it, but I say it, and then she just laughs at me and says things like "Mom, you'll see me after school when you pick me up." It's probably pathetic when your five year old acts more mature than you?
I'll admit that most my worries and fears about sending her are irrational but it doesn't help to put my mind at ease when one of the things they want you to send with your child is an emergency kit with things like a water bottle, and some food, and a reassuring letter. A reassuring letter? Whose going to write me a reassuring letter!? Preferably one that mentions that my child will never actually need her emergency kit? It's getting harder to breathe.

It's Not Just Me, Is it?

I loooove my family like crazy, but some days this quote just rings very true to me.

You young modern people think marriage is some sort of promenade through paradise. When it's more like a march through hell with a man strapped to your back and a litter of nasty babies swinging from your teats.

Is it just me? Well, I know it can't be JUST me, Gertrude Moon felt that way, or at least one of the writers for Frasier did.

Regarding yesterdays post I'm off to a good start, I went running this morning and I really, really didn't want to, but knowing I'd talked about it here really made me do it. So even though I'm embarrassed about posting it, it has already helped.

Taking to Task

These are my fitness goals for the week. My hope is that if I post them here, I'll be too embarrassed not to follow through. It shouldn't be too hard, right?
Here's the thing, I'm not sure which will be harder, the actual running, or the snacking part. My road to The Biggest Loser will be littered with empty Peanut Butter M&M wrappers and ravaged Garden Salsa Sunchips bags.
Anyway, I'll let you know how I do, I'm sure you just can't stand the suspense.

More Actibities

I wanted to do this activity last summer with the girls but for whatever reason never got around to it. I got the idea off of a blog that I read and cannot now remember which, I thought I'd saved the link but it's nowhere to be found, whoops. I can't remember what they called it either, so we had to come up with our own name and landed on Icy Treasure Hunt.As far as I could remember the idea is to round up a bunch of small treasures, I picked up a few packages of things from the dollar store. Then you partly fill a large container with water and mix in some of the treasures. Let that layer freeze, and then repeat the process until you've got all your treasures frozen throughout several layers. Then you let your kids excavate away. I gave them spritzer bottles (which by the by were completely useless, actual spray bottles would have been much better. I tried but I just couldn't find any!) some paint brushes and some toothbrushes, and I'm sure there's a hundred more "tools" you could think of to use. In fact if you do think of something, let me know what it is. Oh the fun they'll have. One thing I like about this activity has been that when they lose interest after a while, I can freeze what's leftover and pull it out again the next day. It's probably even more fun if you do it outside but unfortunately for my girls, I'm not that kind of mom and we don't have that kind of yard.

In somewhat related news, have you ever seen anything so beautiful as this?Me neither.

Actibities

Things (mostly meaning me) have been feeling kind of crazy around here lately, I want to blame most of it on the heat, and whatever is left over on LaRue and Matilda. Yesterday, the girls were having a snack at the table and kept dipping one of their little fairy toys in LaRues cup of water. Of course my initial inward response was irritation (my initial inward response is almost always irritation these days) but then I realized that although they had gotten a little bit of water on the table, they were playing nicely, and somewhat quietly, why fight it? Then it hit me - and this was like a clouds parting, sunlight breaking through type of realization - It was only water. Boom! Sudden clarity, it's only water! So I decided to kick it up a notch.
We went through their toybox and found as many of their little figurine-y toys as we could, I put a towel on the table, filled a couple of pots and pans with water, some soapy, some not, and let them have at it. They were entertained for almost two hours. Seriously. And wiping up what water got on the floor afterward was as close to mopping as I'm likely to get, so, bonus. Also, the name they came up with for this "actibity" is Water Bath, which is just good clean fun for the whole family.

In other news as of July 15th, Adelaide is a bonafide roller overer...

And when Matilda eats an ice cream cone she grows a goatee...Oh, and I won't show you a picture of it or anything, but last week I ran two miles five days in a row, a total victory for me when you take into account how hot it was, and how very much I just didn't want to do it, holla!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...

A couple of days ago I was trying to make the most of Matildas nap time by finishing up a little project I was working on. As I sat at the desk with my sewing machine and sewing basket LaRue wandered up and said wistfully "I wish I could cut and sew". So even though I knew it would mean a thousand interruptions, I gave her a pair of child scissors, some felt and some embroidery floss on a needle and let her have at it. After some random stitching LaRue decided she wanted to make a hat, more specifically a Rapunzel hat. After a few frustrated attempts on her part and some help from me, here is where we landed.We all know I love me some gnomes, and oh, these hats make me laugh so hard inside. But the girls truly believe they look just like Rapunzel hats and I think that's great. I won't even mention to them that the hats make them look less like princesses and more like they should be hanging out with this guy.

Stranded at the Drive In

Almost, but not quite.
Last Friday we loaded every pillow and blanket we own into the back of our van and headed to the Drive In. I had mentioned to Angie earlier in the day that we were going and what was showing (rhymes) and when we got there Angie, Kyle and their whole crew, Alycia, Serena and Randall were all there too, huzzah! It was so much fun. We didn't get to park right next to them, but we were only one row up and about ten? cars away.How cute is that? It was a really fun night, LaRue got to visit with her cousins through the first movie, Up, so cute, so sweet. Then of course the kids were all asleep through the second movie, The Proposal, which was fun, almost like getting to be on a real date with the Jordan.
During the intermission I had Jordan run the car for a few minutes and I felt so smart about it. Then after the second show Angie came over to make sure our car would start and I was all "Oh we started it during intermission, we should be fine" And wouldn't you know it, it wouldn't start. Thank you Kenners, Campbells, Funks, for staying and helping us start our car, thank you! So remember folks, the Drive In is good family fun and it's a dying breed, so if you have one near you go ahead and frequent it once in a while, you won't be sorry. Unless of course your battery dies and you don't have helpful cousins there to help you get going, but other than that, you really won't be! Oh, and remind me to bring a flashlight next time, it just would have been handy.

Good Old New Hings

Our beloved Ericksons were in town for a week around the fourth of July, hooray! We love when they come to visit. LaRue adored every minute with her cousins, especially Hali. There was lots of visiting, some swimming, a parade, some games and of course a visit to one of our favorites, New Hings. We had a pretty large group, I think we were about twenty? for a delicious and very filling dinner.We had eight kids sitting at this circle table, if I had only gotten out of my seat I could have gotten them all in the picture, but I just didn't do it. And as you can see, it all started out very civilized. Of course by the end, you couldn't do anything to keep Matilda or LaRue in their chairs, and the table was a bit messier than this, but it all went fairly well. Nothing like a good night out with the family... and crab puffs... and general tsos... and kung pao - ooh, and lo mein. Yeah, I might be a little hungry at the moment.

Two Traditions

As I was looking for the pictures to use in this post I realized that the girls have two Blessing Day traditions.

First, they have all worn the same dress, which also happens to be the dress that I was blessed in. I'm so happy that my mom managed to hang onto mine all those years and that my girls have all been able to wear the same one. That is very special to me.

LaRue - July 4th, 2004

Matilda - January 7, 2007


Adelaide - July 5, 2009

Did you notice what the second tradition might be? That they're all pretty ticked off come picture taking time.
We really did have a lovely day. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the blessing, even if we didn't get a chance to speak, it meant so much to me that you would be there.

Now I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures from today.

Oh, don't you just wanna kiss her?

Gawking

I'm pretty sure I'm the last to hear/find out about everything so you probably already know all about this site, but I just stumbled upon it last night and am so in love with it at the moment.
To put it in their words (or, you know, to steal their words verbatim)
craftgawker is a gallery where anyone can showcase their art, crafting and photography skills. It's a place for you to discover new artists and homemade goods to inspire your own creations. Anyone can submit pictures, if they follow our simple site rules...

There are so many different types of projects pictured and it just has me itching to make one of everything. If you don't feel like making what you see, but gotta have it anyway, most pictures link directly to the artists Etsy shops so you can make it yours directly.

I can't really explain why but I'm completely obsessed now with these little beauties from SavageArtworksMaybe it's the way they're all staring at me but I wish they could be mine. At $125.00 that's not gonna be happening anytime soon, maybe I'll make due with one of these little guysWell anyway, I just thought it was a really cool site and thought I'd share. It's worth clicking around, I promise.

Dressing Up

This Sunday we're going to be blessing Adelaide in church and I'm so excited to be with all the family that will be here. Well my mom has asked a few times in the past month or two if I had tried the blessing dress on Adelaide and did it still fit? LaRue and Matilda were also blessed in this dress but they were both a bit smaller and were blessed around two months old as opposed to Adelaides three. I kept putting off trying it on her with the delusional belief that if I didn't try it on her - and thus didn't find out that it didn't fit - until the day of, then it would just have to fit. Well this morning reality struck and I decided that I'd better know ahead of time what we were dealing with and if it didn't fit I could go pick up a little white cardigan or something and we'd leave the buttons open in the back because come what may, she's wearing this dress. Thankfully it fits just perfectly and she looks just darling in it, so we're all set for the big day. While I was in dressing up mode (the poor child rarely gets to wear anything fancier than a onesie, what can I say? It's hot, and I'm lazy) I tried on an ADORABLE outfit sent to Adelaide from my beloved Michelle and family and that's fitting her just right these days too, yippee! Please to enjoy our little polka dot princess...